Photo Unsplash/Umutcan-Günüc Not much culture in Wageningen? In this regular feature, we show how wrong that is. This time, read about the anniversary concerts of Wageningen student choir and orchestra WSKOV.
Mees Ike (23), Geo-information Science Master’s student, and Jasper Wetzels (22, Plant Sciences Master’s student, are both members of the Wageningen student choir and orchestra WSKOV. Mees is a tenor and Jasper plays the viola.
What Mees and Jasper like most about performances is that group vibe. ‘At the start, you have to learn a lot of notes but later you can let go of that,’ says Mees. ‘Then you create a distinctive sound and it becomes something really cool,’ Jasper agrees as a viola player. ‘I am
Student orchestra and choir celebrate with ‘nature music’ not the most important musician, but it would
sound a lot starker without the violas. Your roleis that one note in the orchestra’s whole range.’
WSKOV is celebrating its 105th anniversary this year. To mark that, professional musicians will be joining in some of the pieces. The theme of the concert is ‘Echoes of Nature’. ‘We are playing music with a nature theme, such as a traditional Swedish song with the line “How good the begonias look and the wild mint”,’ says Mees. The choir will be singing three pieces by Ravel. ‘They were written during the First World War,’ says Mees. ‘You can feel the anger and grief in the music — it’s really beautiful.’
The orchestra will be playing Tchaikovsky’s fourth symphony. ‘This is the hardest piece we’ve done in the past ten years,’ says Jasper. ‘Some parts are very fast and the brass section needs real power. It takes a while before you dare to play this.’
The choir and orchestra also play one work together; it was composed specifically for this concert by former WSKOV conductor Cees Mobach. ‘That work is pretty special,’ laughs Jasper. ‘It’s WSKOV’s birthday so the piece consists of variations on the Dutch Happy Birthday tune just for us.’
FRI
7 juni 20:00 Junushoff Theater,
SAT
8 juni 20:00 Stevenskerk Nijmegen
€10 For students, €20 For non-students
